Method and apparatus for transmitting a handover report and an rlf report

ABSTRACT

A method for transmitting a handover report and for transmitting a radio link failure (RLF) report are provided. The method includes obtaining, by a target base station, at least one of location information of a source cell or location information of a user equipment (UE) history cell during a handover procedure, and transmitting, by the target base station, the handover report to at least one of a source base station or to a base station where the UE history cell is located, according to the obtained at least one of location information of the source cell or the location information of the UE history cell, wherein the handover report including at least one of an unnecessary handover report, a too early handover report, or a handover to wrong cell report.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation application of prior application Ser.No. 15/864,253, filed on Jan. 8, 2018, which has issued as U.S. Pat. No.10,154,535 on Dec. 11, 2018, and is a continuation application of priorapplication Ser. No. 14/698,212, filed on Apr. 28, 2015, which hasissued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,867,224 on Jan. 9, 2018 and was based on andclaimed priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) of a Chinese patentapplication number 201410177271.4, filed on Apr. 29, 2014 in the ChinaNational Intellectual Property Administration, and of a Chinese patentapplication number 201410498635.9 filed on Sep. 25, 2014 in the ChinaNational Intellectual Property Administration, the disclosure of whichis incorporated by reference herein in its entirety

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to mobile communication systems. Moreparticularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and anapparatus for transmitting a handover report and a radio link failure(RLF) report.

BACKGROUND

With the development of communication technologies, mobile communicationsystems are developed to be system architecture evolved (SAE) systems.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an SAE system according to therelated art.

Referring to FIG. 1, the system includes an evolved universalterrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) 101 and a core network thatat least includes a mobility management entity (MME) 105 and asubscriber plane entity (serving gateway (S-GW)) 106. The E-UTRAN 101 isconfigured to connect a user equipment (UE) to the core network, and theE-UTRAN 101 includes more than one macro base station (evolved Node-B(eNB)) 102 and home base station (home eNB (HeNB)) 103, and optionallyincludes a home base station gateway (HeNB GW) 104. The MME 105 and theS-GW 106 may be integrated into a module or may be implementedseparately and independently. The eNBs 102 are connected with each otherby X2 interfaces, and are connected with the MME 105 and S-GW 106 by S1interfaces respectively. An HeNB 103 is connected with the MME 105 andS-GW 106 directly by S1 interfaces, or is connected with the optionalHeNB GW 104 by an S1 interface and then the HeNB GW104 is connected tothe MME 105 and the S-GW 106 respectively by an S1 interface.

During an early stage of establishing an SAE system or during theoperation of an SAE system, it costs a great amount of manpower andmaterial resource configures to optimize parameters of the SAE system,especially radio parameters, so as to guarantee good coverage andcapacity, mobility robustness, load balancing and a user equipmentaccess rate during movement, and the like, of the SAE system. To savemanpower and material resource configurations, currently an SAE systemself-optimization method is proposed. During a self-optimizationprocedure, eNB or HeNB settings are optimized according to currentstatus of an SAE system. The SAE system self-optimization method will beillustrated hereafter, and eNB and HeNB are abbreviated to eNB.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a basic principle of performingself-optimization for an SAE system according to the related art.

Referring to FIG. 2, once an eNB is powered or accesses to the SAEsystem, the eNB may perform a self-configuration process. The processincludes performing basic configuration and initial radio parameterconfiguration for the eNB. The basic configuration for the eNB includesconfiguration of an Internet protocol (IP) address of the eNB anddetecting operations, administration, and management (OA&M), validationbetween the eNB and a core network, detecting an HeNB GW to which theeNB belongs when the eNB is an HeNB, downloading software and operatingparameters of the eNB to perform self-configuration. Since the initialradio parameter configuration is implemented according to experience orsimulation, thus the performance of respective eNBs of the SAE systemwill be influenced by environments of areas where the eNBs are located,so the eNBs need to specifically perform initial configuration of aneighbor list and initial configuration of load balance according to theenvironments of the areas where the eNBs are located. After theself-configuration process is completed, a lot of parameters configuredfor the eNBs may not be the most optimal, so to make the SAE systemhaving better performance, the configuration of the eNBs needs to beoptimized or adjusted, namely self-optimization of a mobilecommunication system. When the configuration of the eNBs is optimized oradjusted, the process may be carried out through backstage OA&M. Theremay be a standard interface between the OA&M and an eNB, and the OA&Mneeds to transmit optimized parameters through the interface to the eNB(may be an eNB or HeNB), then the eNB optimizes parameters of the eNB'sconfiguration according to the optimized parameters. Of course, theprocess may be performed by the eNB itself. For example, the eNB obtainsperformance to be optimized by detection, and optimizes or adjustsparameters corresponding thereto. The eNB configuration optimization oradjustment may include: neighbor list self-optimization, coverage andcapacity self-optimization, mobility robustness self-optimization, loadbalancing self-optimization, random access channel (RACH) parameterself-optimization, and the like.

A basic principle of mobility robustness self-optimization is asfollows. If a radio link failure (RLF) or handover failure happens to aUE, when the UE enters into connected mode again, the UE notifies thenetwork that there is an available RLF report, and the network transmitsa message to the UE to request for the RLF report. The RLF reporttransmitted by the UE includes information on an E-UTRAN cell globalidentifier (ECGI) of a cell that serves the UE last, an ECGI of a cellthat attempts to be reestablished, an ECGI of a cell that triggers alast handover procedure, time from triggering a last handover procedureto connection failure, a reason for connection failure being RLF orhandover failure, radio measurement, and the like. A base station thatobtains the RLF report from the UE forwards the RLF report obtained fromthe UE to a base station where the cell that serves the UE last islocated. The base station that serves the UE last determines whether itis a too early handover, a too late handover, a handover to wrong cell,or covering leakage. If it is a too early handover or a handover towrong cell, the base station transmits information on the too earlyhandover or information on the handover to wrong cell to a source basestation that triggers the too early handover or triggers the handover towrong cell.

For mobility robustness optimization (MRO) between different radioaccess technologies (RAT), e.g., a too early handover from 3rdgeneration (3G) or 2nd generation (2G) to long term evolution (LTE), ifshortly after a radio network controller (RNC) hands over the UEsuccessfully to eNB1, an RLF happens to the UE at eNB1, when the UEaccesses LTE next time, the UE transmits a UE RLF report to an eNB(e.g., eNB2) where the UE accesses LTE a second time, the eNB2 transmitsan RLF indication message to the eNB1, and the eNB1 determines a reasonfor the failure. If it is a too early inter-RAT handover, then the eNB1needs to transmit a handover report to a source RNC, and since thehandover is carried out between different systems, the eNB1 needs totransmit the handover report to the source RNC through a core network.However, during transmission of the handover report, the following issuemay occur. According to the RLF indication message transmitted from theeNB2 to the eNB1, the eNB1 only knows a cell identity of a source cell,but the eNB1 would not know other location information of the sourcecell, which results in that the eNB1 is unable to route the handoverreport to the source RNC.

Similarly, for transmission of a handover report of an unnecessaryhandover to another RAT, the issue caused by being unable to transmitthe handover report due to not knowing the location information of asource cell of the handover exists too. Specifically, even if thecoverage of E-UTRAN is good enough to satisfy requirements for the UEservices, the UE still needs to be handed over to another RAT (e.g.,global system for mobile communications (GSM) enhanced data rate for GSMevolution (EDGE) radio access network (GERAN), or universal terrestrialradio access network (UTRAN)). Such a handover is an unnecessaryhandover to another RAT. To detect the unnecessary handover to anotherRAT, when an inter-RAT handover from the E-UTRAN to another RAT isperformed, the eNB needs to contain coverage and quality information ina handover requirement. A radio access network (RAN) node (i.e., RNC orbase station sub-system (BSS)) of another RAT indicates the UE tocontinue to measure the source RAT (i.e., E-UTRAN) for a time. When thetime indicated by the source RAT expires, the target RAT (e.g., UTRAN or(GERAN)) decides whether the target RAT needs to transmit an unnecessaryinter-RAT handover report to the RAN node of the source RAT. However,currently neither the present RAN node of the RAT knows the informationof the source cell, nor does the present RAN node of the RAT know thelocation information of the source cell. Accordingly, the present RANnode of the RAT cannot transmit the unnecessary inter-RAT handoverreport to the RAN node of the source RAT.

Further, for MRO between different RATs, the following issues may existwhen an RLF report is transmitted. For example, for a too early handoverfrom 3G or 2G to LTE, if shortly after an RNC hands over the UEsuccessfully to eNB1, an RLF happens to the UE at eNB1, when the UEaccesses LTE next time, the UE transmits a UE RLF report to an eNB(e.g., eNB2) where the UE accesses LTE a second time, the eNB2 transmitsan RLF indication message to the eNB1, and the eNB1 determines thereason for the failure. If it is a too early inter-RAT handover, thenthe eNB1 needs to transmit a handover report to a source RNC, and sincethe handover is carried out between different systems, the eNB1 needs totransmit the handover report to the source RNC through a core network.If there is no X2 interface between the eNB1 and the eNB2, then the eNB2needs to transmit the UE RLF report to the eNB1 via an S1 interface.However, how the eNB2 can know the detailed information of a cell thatserves the UE last before the failure happens and how to transmit the UERLF report to the eNB1 via the S1 interface are issues yet to beaddressed in the current specifications.

The source base station and the source RAN node in an embodiment of thepresent disclosure are of a same concept, including an eNB in LTE, anRNC in UTRAN, or an RAN node BSS in GERAN.

The above information is presented as background information only toassist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determinationhas been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the abovemight be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

SUMMARY

Aspects of the present disclosure are to address at least theabove-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at leastthe advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the presentdisclosure is to provide a method and an apparatus for transmitting ahandover report and a radio link failure (RLF) report, which are able toavoid influence on the user equipment (UE), reduce configuration of anoperator, transmit the handover report or the RLF report to a sourcebase station or a base station that serves the UE last before a failurehappens, and improve the performance of a mobile communication system.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a method fortransmitting a handover report is provided. The method includes a targetbase station obtaining location information of a source cell or locationinformation of a UE history cell during a handover procedure, and thetarget base station transmitting the handover report to a source basestation or to a base station where the UE history cell is located,according to the obtained location information of the source cell or thelocation information of the UE history cell, the handover reportincluding an unnecessary handover report, a too early handover report,or a handover to wrong cell report.

In an implementation, the target base station obtaining the locationinformation of the source cell or the location information of the UEhistory cell includes UE history information transmitted from the sourcebase station to the target base station containing location informationof UE history cells, and the target base station obtaining the locationinformation of the source cell or the location information of the UEhistory cell from the location information of the UE history cells.

In an implementation, when the UE history information contains bothhistory cells visited by the UE in active mode and history cells visitedby the UE in idle mode, the history cells visited in the active mode andthe history cells visited in the idle mode are unified sorted, thehistory cells visited in the active mode and the history cells visitedin the idle mode are placed in order based on time when the UE accessesto the history cells visited in the active mode and the history cellsvisited in the idle mode, and a history cell which is most recentlyvisited is put first, or the history cells visited in the active modeand the history cells visited in the idle mode are respectively sorted,the history cells visited in the active mode and the history cellsvisited in the idle mode are placed in order based on time when the UEaccesses to the history cells visited in the active mode and the historycells visited in the idle mode, and a history cell which is mostrecently visited is put first.

In an implementation, the target base station obtaining the locationinformation of the source cell includes the source base stationtransmitting information of the source cell, and the information of thesource cell including a cell identity of the source cell and thelocation information of the source cell.

In an implementation, the target base station obtains the locationinformation of the source cell or the location information of the UEhistory cell by a relocation required message, a handover requiredmessage, a forward relocation request message, a relocation requestmessage, or a handover request message.

In an implementation, when the UE history cell or the source cell is anevolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) cell,information of the source cell or information of the UE history celltransmitted from the source base station to the target base stationincludes a base station type or base station identity of the basestation where the UE history cell or the source cell is located, and thetarget base station determines a global base station identity of thebase station where the UE history cell or the source cell is locatedaccording to the base station type or base station identity of the basestation where the UE history cell or the source cell is located, fortransmitting the handover report.

In an implementation, the target base station determining the globalbase station identity of the base station where the UE history cell orthe source cell is located includes the target base station determiningthe base station type of the base station where the UE history cell orthe source cell is located according to configuration or an E-UTRAN cellglobal identifier (ECGI) code or the location information of the UEhistory cell/source cell, and according to the determined base stationtype, extracting the global base station identity of the base stationwhere the UE history cell or the source cell is located from an ECGIcontained in the information of the UE history cell or information ofthe source cell, or the location information of the UE history cell orsource cell transmitted from the source base station to the target basestation comprising the base station identity of the base station wherethe UE history cell or the source cell is located, the target basestation using the base station identity together with a public landmobile network (PLMN) identity contained in the ECGI of the UE historycell or source cell as the global base station identity of the basestation where the UE history cell or the source cell is located, or thelocation information of the UE history cell or source cell transmittedfrom the source base station to the target base station comprises theglobal base station identity of the base station where the UE historycell or the source cell is located.

In an implementation, the base station type is macro base station orhome evolved Node B (HeNB).

Extracting the global base station identity of the base station wherethe UE history cell or the source cell is located from the ECGIcontained in the information of the UE history cell or information ofthe source cell includes when the base station type is macro basestation, taking first 20 bits of an evolved cell identity (ECI)contained in the ECGI as the base station identity, when the basestation type is HeNB, taking a value of the ECI as the base stationidentity, and taking the base station identity together with the PLMNidentity contained in the ECGI as the global base station identity ofthe base station where the UE history cell or the source cell islocated.

In an implementation, transmitting the handover report to the sourcebase station or to the base station where the UE history cell is locatedincludes the target base station transmitting the handover report to atarget core network node, and including the location information of thesource cell or the location information of the UE history cell obtainedby the target base station in the handover report or in a message thatcarries the handover report, and the target core network nodedetermining a source core network node or a core network node to whichthe eNB that controls the UE history cell connects according to thelocation information of the source cell or the location information ofthe UE history cell, and transmitting the message that carries thehandover report to the source core network node or the core network nodeto which the eNB that controls the UE history cell connects, the sourcecore network node or the core network node to which the eNB thatcontrols the UE history cell connects determining the source basestation or the base station where the UE history cell is locatedaccording to the location information of the source cell or the locationinformation of the UE history cell, and transmitting the handover reportto the source base station or to the base station where the UE historycell is located.

In an implementation, when the source cell or UE history cell is anE-UTRAN cell, the location information of the source cell or thelocation information of the UE history cell is a tracking area identity(TAI) or tracking area code (TAC) of the source cell or UE history cell,when the source cell or the UE history cell is a UTRAN cell, thelocation information of the source cell or the location information ofthe UE history cell is: a location area identity (LAI) or location areacode (LAC), and/or a routing area code (RAC), and/or a radio networkcontroller (RNC) identity, and/or an expanded RNC identity of the sourcecell or UE history cell, and when the source cell or the UE history cellis a global system for mobile communication (GSM) enhanced data rate forGSM evolution radio access network (GERAN), the location information ofthe source cell or the location information of the UE history cell is anLAI or LAC, and/or an RAC, and/or a cell identity (CI) of the sourcecell or UE history cell.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a methodfor transmitting an RLF report, when an RLF or a handover failurehappens after a UE is handed over to a target system, the UE accesses tothe target system again, if there is no an X2 interface between a secondbase station to which the UE accesses when the UE accesses to the targetsystem and a first base station that serves the UE last before the RLFor handover failure happens is provided. The method includes the secondbase station receiving the RLF report transmitted by the UE, the secondbase station determining location information of the cell that servesthe UE last before the RLF or handover failure happens and a basestation identity of the first base station according to a cell identityof the cell that serves the UE last before the RLF or handover failurehappens contained in the RLF report, and the second base stationtransmitting the RLF report to the first base station by an S1 messagewhich carries a target node identity, the target node identitycontaining the location information and the base station identity of thefirst base station.

In an implementation, determining the location information of the cellthat serves the UE last before the RLF or handover failure happensincludes the second base station searching for location information of acell corresponding to the cell identity of the cell that serves the UElast before the RLF or handover failure happens in a stored neighborrelation list.

In an implementation, when the RLF report contains a physical-layer cellidentity (PCI) and frequency information of the cell that serves the UElast before the RLF or handover failure happens, determining thelocation information of the cell that serves the UE last before the RLFor handover failure happens includes the second base station determiningthe location information of the cell that serves the UE last before theRLF or handover failure happens by an automatic neighbor relations (ANR)procedure according to the PCI and frequency information of the cellthat serves the UE last before the RLF or handover failure happens.

In an implementation, determining the location information of the cellthat serves the UE last before the RLF or handover failure happensincludes the second base station taking a TAI of a cell that the UEaccesses to when the UE accesses to the target system again as the TAIof the cell that serves the UE last before the failure happens.

In an implementation, the method further includes the second basestation receiving a mobility history report transmitted by the UE, andthe second base station determining the location information of the cellthat serves the UE last before the RLF or handover failure happensfurther according to information of UE history cells contained in themobility history report.

In an implementation, the information of the UE history cells containsECGIs and location information of the UE history cells, and determiningthe location information of the cell that serves the UE last before theRLF or handover failure happens includes determining the locationinformation of the cell that serves the UE last before the RLF orhandover failure happens according to the cell identity of the cell thatserves the UE last before the RLF or handover failure happens, and theECGIs and location information of the UE history cells.

In an implementation, when the cell identity of the cell that serves theUE last before the RLF or handover happens in the RLF report is an ECGI,determining the location information of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore the RLF or handover failure happens includes the second basestation determining the PCI and frequency information of the cell thatserves the UE last before the RLF or handover happens according to acorresponding relation between the ECGIs and PCIs and frequencyinformation of the UE history cells contained in the information of theUE history cells, and determining the location information of the cellthat serves the UE last before the RLF or handover failure happens byusing the ANR procedure.

In an implementation, the second base station transmitting the RLFreport to the first base station by the S1 message includes the secondbase station transmitting the RLF report to a second core network nodeto which the second base station connects by the S1 message that carriesthe target node identity, the second core network node determiningwhether the second base station and the first base station are connectedto a same core network node pool according to the location informationcontained in the target node identity, and the determination is yes,then the second core network node determining the first base stationaccording to the base station identity of the first base station andtransmitting the RLF report to the first base station, and if it isdetermined that the first base station and the second base station areconnected to different core network node pools, then the second corenetwork node determining a first core network node to which the firstbase station connects according to the location information contained inthe target node identity, and transmitting the RLF report to the firstcore network node by the S1 message that carries the target nodeidentity, and the first core network node determining the first basestation according to the base station identity of the first base stationcontained in the target node identity, and transmitting the RLF reportto the first base station.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a basestation apparatus is provided. The base station apparatus includes alocation information obtaining unit and a transmitting unit, in whichthe location information obtaining unit is configured for a target basestation of a handover to obtain location information of a source cell orlocation information of a UE history cell, and the transmitting unit isconfigured to transmit a handover report to a source base station or toa base station where the UE history cell is located, according to theobtained location information of the source cell or the locationinformation of the UE history cell, the handover report including anunnecessary handover report, a too early handover report, or a handoverto wrong cell report.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a basestation apparatus is provided. The base station apparatus includes anRLF report receiving unit, a location information determination unit andan RLF report transmitting unit, in which the RLF report receiving unitis configured to receive an RLF report transmitted by a UE, the locationinformation determination unit is configured to determine locationinformation of a cell that serves the UE last before a failure happensand a base station identity of a base station that serves the UE lastbefore the failure happens according to a cell identity of the cell thatserves the UE last before the failure happens, and the RLF reporttransmitting unit is configured to transmit the RLF report to the basestation that serves the UE last before the failure happens by an S1message that carries a target node identity, and the target nodeidentity including the location information and the base stationidentity of the base station that serves the UE last before the failurehappens.

In conclusion, in the method and apparatus for transmitting a handoverreport adopted by the present disclosure, a source base station notifiesa target base station of information of a source cell or information ofa UE history cell (UE history information) containing locationinformation of the history cell. When the target base station needs totransmit a handover report to the source base station, the target basestation routes the handover report to the source base station or a basestation controller via a core network. Further, a method and anapparatus for transmitting an RLF report are disclosed. In thecircumstance that after a handover, an RLF happens to the UE or thehandover fails, when there is no X2 interface between a base stationwhere the UE accesses to the target system again and a base station thatserves the UE last before failure, the present disclosure discloses amethod of obtaining routing information of the base station that servesthe UE last before failure and transmitting the RLF report through theS1 interface. With the methods of the present disclosure, influence onthe user equipment is avoided, configuration of an operator is reduced,thus the mobility robustness optimization (MRO) issue between differentradio access technologies (RATs) is addressed and the system performanceis improved.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings,discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certainembodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a structure of a systemarchitecture evolved (SAE) system according to the related art;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a basic principle of performingself-optimization for an SAE system according to the related art;

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of a basic work flow of a methodfor transmitting a handover report according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a first embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a second embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a third embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a fourth embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a basic work flow of a method fortransmitting a radio link failure (RLF) report according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting an RLFreport according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting an RLFreport according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates a schematic diagram of a basic structure of a firstbase station device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 12 illustrates a schematic diagram of a basic structure of a secondbase station device according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbersare used to depict the same or similar elements, features, andstructures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings isprovided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of variousembodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and theirequivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in thatunderstanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatvarious changes and modifications of the various embodiments describedherein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of thepresent disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functionsand constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are notlimited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by theinventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in theart that the following description of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for thepurpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appendedclaims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes referenceto one or more of such surfaces.

A source base station and a source radio access network (RAN) node in anembodiment of the present disclosure are of a same concept, including anevolved Node-B (eNB) in long term evolution (LTE), a radio networkcontroller (RNC) in universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN),or a base station sub-system (BSS) in global system for mobilecommunications (GSM) enhanced data rate for GSM evolution (EDGE) radioaccess network (GERAN).

To address the issue existing in the related art, a method fortransmitting a handover report is provided. Specifically, provided withinformation of a source cell or location information of a history cellcontained in user equipment (UE) history information notified by asource base station to a target base station, when the target basestation needs to transmit a handover report to the source base stationor to a base station where the UE history cell is located, the targetbase station uses the information of the source cell or the locationinformation of the UE history cell received from the source base stationto route a message to the source base station or to the base stationwhere the history cell is located or a base station controller via acore network. Further, when information needs to be transmitted betweena base station that is newly accessed to by the UE and a base stationthat serves the UE last before a failure happens and there is no X2interfaces between the two base stations, a method of how to obtainrouting information of the base station that serves the UE last beforethe failure happens and how to transmit an RLF report via an S1interface is provided. With the method of the present disclosure,influence on the user equipment is avoided, an operator's configurationis reduced, so that the mobility robustness optimization (MRO) issuebetween different radio access technologies (RATs) is addressed and thesystem performance is improved.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of a basic work flow of a methodfor transmitting a handover report according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, the flow includes the followingoperations.

Referring to FIG. 3, at operation 301, a target base station obtainslocation information of a source cell or location information of a UEhistory cell from the source cell information or UE history informationtransmitted from a source base station.

The target base station obtains the location information of the sourcecell or the location information of the history cell visited by the UEin two methods. The first method is that the source base stationincludes the location information of the history cell visited by the UEinto the UE history information transmitted to the target base station.

Specifically, if the UE history cell is an evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) cell,then the location information of the UE history cell contains a trackingarea identity (TAI) or tracking area code (TAC) of the UE history cell.If the UE history cell is an E-UTRAN cell, since cell information in UEhistory information originally contains information, such as cell globalidentity, cell type, time UE stayed in cell, and the like, when thelocation information of the UE history cell is added, the cellinformation in the UE history information contains a cell globalidentity, a TAI or TAC of the cell, a cell type, time the UE stayed inthe cell, and the like. If the UE history cell is an E-UTRAN cell, thelocation information of the UE history cell may also contain a basestation type or a base station identity of a base station where the UEhistory cell is located, the target base station determines a globalbase station identity of the base station where the UE history cell islocated according to the base station type or base station identity ofthe base station where the UE history cell is located, and uses theglobal base station identity for subsequently transmitting the handoverreport. Specifically, the target base station may know the global basestation identity of the source LTE base station through the followingthree method.

Method 1: Knowing from ECGI

In the information of the UE history cell transmitted from the sourcebase station to the target base station, a cell identity (E-UTRAN cellglobal identifier (ECGI)) is contained. The target base station knowsthe base station type of the source base station according toconfiguration or according to an ECGI code, and extracts a global basestation identity of the base station where the UE history cell islocated from the ECGI according to the base station type, e.g.,determining whether the base station type is macro base station or homeeNB (HeNB). If the base station type is macro base station, the first 20bits of an evolved cell identity (ECI) contained in the ECGI is the basestation identity, and if the base station type is HeNB, then the ECI isthe base station identity. The base station identity together with thepublic land mobile network (PLMN) identity is the global base stationidentity of the source base station.

Method 2: Knowing from ECGI

The source base station further includes the base station type of thebase station where the UE history cell is located in the locationinformation of the UE history cell. The target base station obtains theglobal base station identity of the source base station from the ECGIand the base station type received from the source base station. Forexample, if the base station type is macro base station, then the first20 bits of the ECI included in the ECGI is the base station identity. Ifthe base station type is HeNB, then the ECI is the base stationidentity. The base station identity together with the PLMN identity isthe global base station identity of the source base station.

Method 3: The Source Base Station Includes the Base Station Identity orGlobal Base Station Identity of the Base Station where the UE HistoryCell is Located in the Location Information of the UE History Cell

If the base station identity is included, then the target base stationknows the PLMN identity according to the ECGI. The target base stationknows the global base station identity of the source base station fromthe source base station.

When the target base station needs to transmit information to the sourcebase station via a Router Interface Marking (RIM) message, the targetbase station may include the TAI and the global base station identity inan RIM routing address. When the target base station needs to use theTAI of the source cell and/or the global base station identity of thesource base station to route other messages to the source base stationvia a core network, the target base station may include the TAI and/orthe global base station identity in the messages.

If the UE history cell is a UTRAN cell, then the location information ofthe UE history cell contains a location area identity (LAI) or locationarea code (LAC), and/or a routing area code (RAC), and/or an RNCidentity, and/or an expanded RNC identity of the UE history cell. Inaddition, when the UE history cell is a UTRAN cell, since cellinformation in UE history information originally contains a UTRAN cellidentity, a cell type, and time UE stayed in cell, therefore, when thelocation information of the UE history cell is added, the cellinformation in the UE history information contains the UTRAN cellidentity, the cell type, the time UE stayed in cell, and the locationinformation of the UE history cell.

If the UE history cell is a GERAN cell, then the location information ofthe UE history cell contains an LAI or LAC, and/or an RAC, and/or a cellidentity (CI) of the UE history cell. In addition, if the UE historycell is a GERAN cell, since cell information in UE history informationoriginally contains a GERAN cell identity, time UE stayed in cell, andthe like, therefore, when the location information of the UE historycell is added, the cell information in the UE history informationcontains the GERAN cell identity, the LAI or LAC, and/or the RAC, and/orthe CI of the GERAN cell, time the UE stayed in the GERAN cell, and thelike.

The target base station determines the location information of thesource cell or the location information of the UE history cell from thelocation information of the UE history cells.

The second method of the target base station obtaining the locationinformation of the source cell is that the source base station transmitsthe source cell information which includes a cell identity of the sourcecell and location information of the source cell, to the target basestation. Different RATs may have different types of locationinformation, for information referring to the description of thelocation information of the UE history cell.

The source base station notifies a base station where the target cell islocated the location information of the source cell or the locationinformation of the UE history cell by a relocation required message or ahandover required message, a forward relocation request message, arelocation request message or a handover request message, or maytransmit the location information of the source cell or the locationinformation of the UE history cell to the base station controlling thetarget cell by a source-to-target transparent container contained in themessages.

The UE history information may only contain information of cells thatserve the UE in active mode before the UE accesses to the target cell,and a most recently visited cell is put first. The UE historyinformation may contain information of cells that are camped by the UEin idle mode as well, and the information of cells that are camped bythe UE in idle mode is the same as the information of cells that arevisited by the UE in connected mode. In the circumstance that the UEhistory information both contains history cells visited by the UE inactive mode and history cells visited by the UE in idle mode, the cellsmay be sorted according to an order in which the UE accesses to thecells, and a most recently visited cell is put first. Or the historycells visited by the UE in active mode and the history cells visited bythe UE in idle mode are sorted separately, and a most recently visitedcell is put first.

At operation 302, when the target base station needs to transmit ahandover report to the base station where the source cell of the UE orthe UE history cell is located, the target base station transmits thehandover report to the source base station or to the base station wherethe UE history cell is located according to the obtained locationinformation of the source cell or the location information of the UEhistory cell.

As described above, the base station and the RAN access point are of asame concept.

Specifically, when the target base station detects that the base stationof the source cell triggers an improper inter-RAT handover to a targetcell, the base station of the target access system transmits a handoverreport to the base station where the source cell is located to notifythe base station where the source cell is located of the improperinter-RAT handover, e.g., an unnecessary inter-RAT handover, a too earlyinter-RAT handover, or a handover to wrong RAT. A message that carriesthe handover report contains a cell identity of the source cell and thelocation information of the source cell. The location information may bea LAI or LAC of the source cell, and/or an RAC of the source cell,and/or an RNC identity of the source cell, and/or an expanded RNCidentity of the source cell, and/or a TAI of the source cell, and/or abase station type or base station identity or global base stationidentity of the base station where the source cell is located.

Specifically, the target base station first transmits the message thatcarries the handover report to a target core network node (e.g., amobility management entity (MME) or serving general packet radio service(GPRS) support node (SGSN) or mobile switching center (MSC)), the targetcore network node finds a source core network node (e.g., an SGSN or MSCor MME) according to the LAI or RAC or TAI of the source cell or the UEhistory cell. Then the source core network node finds the source basestation or the base station where the UE history cell is located (e.g.,an RNC or eNB or BSS) according to the RNC identity, or the source cellidentity, or the source base station identity (a base station identityor a global base station identity), or the CI. Specifically, if thesource access system is 3rd Generation (3G), then the target corenetwork node finds the source SGSN according to the LAI, and/or RAC. Ifthe source access system is LTE, then the target core network node findsthe source MME according to the TAI or TAC. If the source access systemis 2nd Generation (2G), then the target core network node finds thesource MSC according to the LAI or LAC, and/or RAC. If the source accesssystem is 3G, then the source SGSN finds the source base station (i.e.,a source RNC) according to the RNC identity or expanded PNC identity ofthe source cell. If the source access system is LTE, then the source MMEfinds the source base station eNB according to the source cell identityor the source base station identity (a base station identity or a globalbase station identity). And if the source access system is 2G, then thesource MSC finds the source base station (i.e., a source BSS) accordingto the CI.

At this point, the description of the overall work flow of the methodfor transmitting a handover report according to the present disclosureis completed.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a first embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Handover from LTE to 2G or 3G is used an example toillustrate transmission of an unnecessary handover report. Hereinoperations irrelevant to the present disclosure will be omitted. Asshown in FIG. 4, the flow includes the following operations.

Referring to FIG. 4, at operation 401, an eNB decides to perform ahandover. The eNB transmits a handover required message to an MME.

UE history information contained in the handover required messagecontains location information of history cells that have been visited bythe UE, and information of the location information of the history cellsthat have been visited by the UE is the same as that in operation 301,and will not be elaborated herein. The handover required messagecontains coverage and quality condition information.

The UE history information may only contain information of cells thatserve the UE in active mode before the UE accesses to a target cell, anda most recently visited cell is put first. The UE history informationmay contain information of cells that are camped by the UE in idle modeas well, and the information of cells that are camped by the UE in theidle mode is the same as the information of cells that are visited bythe UE in connected mode. In the circumstance that the UE historyinformation contains both history cells visited by the UE in active modeand history cells visited by the UE in idle mode, the cells may besorted according to an order in which the UE accesses to the cells, anda most recently visited cell is put first. Or the history cells visitedby the UE in active mode and the history cells visited by the UE in idlemode are sorted separately, and a most recently visited cell is putfirst.

At operation 402, the MME transmits a forward relocation request messageto an SGSN/MSC. If the target cell is a UTRAN cell, then the target corenetwork node is an SGSN, and if the target cell is a GERAN cell, thenthe target core network node is an MSC.

UE history information contained in the forward relocation requestmessage contains location information of history cells that have beenvisited by the UE, and information of the location information of thehistory cells that have been visited by the UE is the same as that inoperation 301, and will not be elaborated herein.

At operation 403, the SGSN/MSC transmits a relocation request message toan RNC/BSS. If the target cell is a UTRAN cell, then the target corenetwork node is an SGSN, and the target radio access network node is anRNC. If the target cell is a GERAN cell, then the target core networknode is an MSC, and the target radio access network node is a BSS.

UE history information contained in the relocation request messagecontains location information of history cells that have been visited bythe UE, and information of the location information of the history cellsthat have been visited by the UE is the same as that in operation 301,and will not be elaborated herein. The RNC or BSS stores the received UEhistory information.

At operation 404, the RNC/BSS transmits a relocation requestacknowledgement message to the SGSN/MSC.

At operation 405, the SGSN/MSC transmits a forward relocation responsemessage to the MME.

At operation 406, the MME transmits a relocation command message to theeNB.

At operation 407, the eNB transmits a handover from E-UTRAN commandmessage to the UE.

At operation 408, the UE transmits a handover to UTRAN completionmessage to the RNC or transmits a corresponding GERAN message to theBSS.

If the RNC/BSS receives coverage and quality condition information fromthe handover request message, the RNC/BSS instructs the UE to continueto measure the source radio access system E-UTRAN after the UE connectsto the UTRAN/GERAN for a time, and transmits a measurement report to theRNC/BSS. When the specified time expires, the RNC/BSS determines whetherthe RNC/BSS needs to transmit an unnecessary inter-RAT handover to thesource base station according to the measurement report received fromthe UE or the coverage and quality condition received from the sourcebase station. When the handover report needs to be transmitted,following operations will be executed.

At operation 409, the RNC/BSS transmits a handover report of unnecessaryhandover to the target core network node SGSN/MSC.

The message for transmission of the unnecessary inter-RAT handovercontains a global base station identity of a base station where a sourcecell is located and a TAI of the source cell. The unnecessary inter-RAThandover report further contains a cell global identity of the sourcecell (ECGI). The RNC/BSS knows the cell identity of the source cell andthe TAI of the source cell according to the received UE historyinformation. The RNC/BSS knows the global base station identity of thesource base station according to the cell global identity of the sourcecell or the received UE history information. Specifically, the RNC/BSSknows the global base station identity of the source base stationaccording to the cell global identity of the source cell, or accordingto the cell global identity of the source cell and the source basestation type, or directly according to the received global base stationidentity of the source base station. Since the most recent cellinformation contained in the UE history information is put first in thelist.

At operation 410, the target core network node SGSN/MSG transmits thehandover report to the source core network node MME.

The target core network node SGSN/MSC finds the source core network nodeMME according to the TAI of the source cell contained in the message forunnecessary inter-RAT handover transmission.

At operation 411, the source core network node MME transmits thehandover report to a source base station eNB.

The source MME finds the source base station eNB according to the sourcecell identity or the source base station identity. And from the cellglobal identity of the source cell contained in the unnecessaryinter-RAT handover report, the source base station knows from which cellto an RAT where the target base station is located the unnecessaryhandover to another RAT is triggered.

At this point, the description of the overall work flow of the methodfor transmitting a handover report according to a first embodiment ofthe present disclosure is completed.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a second embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Handover from LTE to 2G or 3G is used an example toillustrate transmission of an unnecessary handover report. Hereinoperations irrelevant to the present disclosure will be omitted. Asshown in FIG. 5, the flow includes the following operations.

Referring to FIG. 5, at operation 501, an eNB decides to perform ahandover. The eNB transmits a handover required message to an MME.

The message contains information of a source cell. The information ofthe source cell contains a cell identity of the source cell and locationinformation of the source cell. Specifically, in an embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the location information of the source cell containsa TAI of the source cell. The location information of the source cellmay also contain a base station type or base station identity of thebase station where the source cell is located (a base station identityor a global base station identity). The target base station uses thedetermined or directly received global base station identity forsubsequent transmission of the handover report. Specifically, the targetbase station may know the global base station identity of the sourcebase station through the following three methods.

Method 1: Knowing from ECGI

In the information of the source cell transmitted from the source basestation to the target base station, a source cell identity (ECGI) iscontained. The target base station knows the base station type of thesource base station according to configuration or according to an ECGIcode, and extracts a global base station identity of the base stationwhere the source cell is located from the ECGI according to the basestation type, e.g., determining whether the base station type is macrobase station or HeNB. If the base station type is macro base station,then the first 20 bits of an ECI contained in the ECGI is the basestation identity, and if the base station type is HeNB, then the ECI isthe base station identity. The base station identity together with thePLMN identity is the global base station identity of the source basestation. Corresponding to this method, the location information of thesource cell needs not to contain the base station type or base stationidentity of the base station where the source cell is located.

Method 2: Knowing from ECGI

The source base station further includes the base station type of thebase station where the source cell is located in the locationinformation of the source cell. The target base station obtains theglobal base station identity of the source base station from the ECGIand the base station type received from the source base station. Forexample, if the base station type is macro base station, then the first20 bits of the ECI included in the ECGI is the base station identity. Ifthe base station type is HeNB, then the ECI is the base stationidentity. The base station identity together with the PLMN identity isthe global base station identity of the source base station.

Method 3: The Source Base Station Includes the Base Station Identity orGlobal Base Station Identity of the Base Station where the Source Cellis Located in the Location Information of the Source Cell

If the base station identity is included, then the target base stationknows the PLMN identity according to the ECGI. The target base stationknows the global base station identity of the source base station fromthe source base station.

When the target base station needs to transmit information to the sourcebase station via an RIM message, the target base station may include theTAI and the global base station identity in an RIM routing address. Whenthe target base station needs to use the TAI of the source cell and/orthe global base station identity of the source base station to routeother messages to the source base station via a core network, the targetbase station may include the TAI and/or the global base station identityin the messages.

The handover required message contains coverage and quality conditioninformation.

At operation 502, the MME transmits a forward relocation request messageto an SGSN/MSC. If a target cell is a UTRAN cell, then the target corenetwork node is an SGSN, and if the target cell is a GERAN cell, thenthe target core network node is an MSC.

The forward relocation request message contains information of thesource cell. The information of the source cell is the same as that inoperation 501, which will not be elaborated herein.

At operation 503, the SGSN/MSC transmits a relocation request message toan RNC/BSS. If the target cell is a UTRAN cell, then the target corenetwork node is an SGSN, and the target radio access network node is anRNC. If the target cell is a GERAN cell, then the target core networknode is an MSC, and the target radio access network node is a BSS.

The relocation request message contains information of the source cell.The information of the source cell is the same as that in operation 501,and will not be elaborated herein. The RNC/BSS stores the information ofthe source cell.

At operation 504, the RNC/BSS transmits a relocation requestacknowledgement message to the SGSN/MSC.

At operation 505, the SGSN/MSC transmits a forward relocation responsemessage to the MME.

At operation 506, the MME transmits a relocation command message to theeNB.

At operation 507, the eNB transmits a handover from E-UTRAN commandmessage to the UE.

At operation 508, the UE transmits a handover to UTRAN completionmessage to the RNC or transmits a corresponding GERAN message to theBSS.

If the RNC/BSS receives coverage and quality condition information fromthe handover request message, the RNC/BSS instructs the UE to continueto measure the source radio access system E-UTRAN after the UE connectsto the UTRAN/GERAN for a time, and transmits a measurement report to theRNC/BSS. When the specified time expires, the RNC/BSS determines whetherthe RNC/BSS needs to transmit an unnecessary inter-RAT handover to thesource base station according to the measurement report received fromthe UE or the coverage and quality condition received from the sourcebase station. When the handover report needs to be transmitted,following operations will be executed.

At operation 509, the RNC/BSS transmits a handover report of unnecessaryhandover to the target core network node SGSN/MSC.

The message for transmission of the unnecessary inter-RAT handovercontains a global base station identity of a base station where a sourcecell is located and a TAI of the source cell. The unnecessary inter-RAThandover report further contains a cell global identity of the sourcecell (ECGI). The RNC/BSS knows the cell identity of the source cell andthe TAI of the source cell according to the received information of thesource cell. The RNC/BSS knows the global base station identity of thesource base station according to the cell global identity of the sourcecell or the received information of the source cell. Specifically, theRNC/BSS knows the global base station identity of the source basestation according to the cell global identity of the source cell, oraccording to the cell global identity of the source cell and the sourcebase station type, or directly according to the received global basestation identity of the source base station.

At operation 510, the target core network node SGSN/MSG transmits thehandover report to the source core network node MME.

The target core network node SGSN/MSC finds the source core network nodeMME according to the TAI of the source cell contained in the message forunnecessary inter-RAT handover transmission.

At operation 511, the source core network node MME transmits thehandover report to a source base station eNB.

The source MME finds the source base station eNB according to the sourcecell identity or the source base station identity (a base stationidentity or a global base station identity). And from the cell globalidentity of the source cell contained in the unnecessary inter-RAThandover message, the source base station knows from which cell to anRAT where the target base station is located the unnecessary handover toanother RAT is triggered.

Now, the description of the overall work flow of the method fortransmitting a handover report according to the second embodiment of thepresent disclosure is completed.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a third embodiment of the presentdisclosure. Handover from 2G or 3G to LTE is used as an example toillustrate the method that a target base station obtains locationinformation of a source base station. Herein operations irrelevant tothe present disclosure will be omitted. As shown in FIG. 6, the flowincludes the following operations.

Referring to FIG. 6, at operation 601, the RNC/BSS decides to perform ahandover. The RNC/BSS transmits a relocation required message to theSGSN/MSC. If a source cell is a UTRAN cell, then the source radio accessnetwork node is an RNC, and the source core network node is an SGSN. Ifthe source cell is a GERAN cell, then the source radio access networknode is a BSS, and the source core network node is an MSC.

UE history information contained in the relocation required messagecontains location information of UE history cells, and information ofthe location information of the UE history cells is the same as that inoperation 301, and will not be elaborated herein.

The UE history information may only contain information of cells thatserve the UE in active mode before the UE accesses to a target cell, anda most recently visited cell is put first. The UE history informationmay contain information of cells that are camped by the UE in idle modeas well, and the information of cells that are camped by the UE in idlemode is the same as the information of cells that are visited by the UEin connected mode. In the circumstance that the UE history informationcontains both history cells visited by the UE in active mode and historycells visited by the UE in idle mode, the cells may be sorted accordingto an order in which the UE accesses to the cells, and a most recentlyvisited cell is put first. Or the history cells visited by the UE inactive mode and the history cells visited by the UE in idle mode aresorted separately, and a most recently visited cell is put first.

At operation 602, the SGSN/MSC transmits a forward relocation requestmessage to the MME.

UE history information contained in the forward relocation requestmessage contains location information of history cells that have beenvisited by the UE, and information of the location information of thehistory cells that have been visited by the UE is the same as that inoperation 301, and will not be elaborated herein.

At operation 603, the MME transmits a handover request message to theeNB.

UE history information contained in the handover request messagecontains location information of history cells that have been visited bythe UE, and information of the location information of the history cellsthat have been visited by the UE is the same as that in operation 301,and will not be elaborated herein. The eNB stores the received UEhistory information.

At operation 604, the eNB transmits a handover request acknowledgementmessage to the MME.

At operation 605, the MME transmits a forward relocation responsemessage to the SGSN/MSC.

At operation 606, the SGSN/MSC transmits a relocation command message tothe RNC/BSS.

At operation 607, the RNC/BSS transmits a handover from UTRAN commandmessage or a packet switched (PS) handover command message to the UE.

At operation 608, the UE transmits a handover to E-UTRAN completionmessage to the RNC/BSS.

At this point, the description of the overall work flow of the methodfor transmitting a handover report according to the third embodiment ofthe present disclosure is completed.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting ahandover report according to a fourth embodiment of the presentdisclosure. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the informationreceived from the source base station during the handover procedure ofthe third embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is used. An embodiment of thepresent disclosure may be applied in the following scenario. If in thethird embodiment of the present disclosure, shortly after the RNC/BSShands over the UE successfully to eNB1, RLF happens to the UE in a cellof the eNB1, when the UE accesses to a LTE cell again, e.g., accessingcell 2 (a cell controlled by eNB2), or is handed over to the cell 2, theUE transmits stored RLF report information to the base station eNB2where the cell 2 is located. When the UE accesses to the cell 1 and RLFhappens, the UE may first access to a 3G cell, e.g., cell3, and thenreturn and access to the LTE cell2 or then be handed over to the LTEcell 2. As shown in FIG. 7, the method includes the followingoperations.

Referring to FIG. 7, at operation 701, RLF happens to the UE in the cellof the eNB1.

At operation 702, when the UE returns to the LTE cell, for example theUE establishing an RRC connection in the cell 2 controlled by the LTEeNB2 or executing RRC connection re-establishment, or when the UE ishanded over to the LTE cell 2, the UE indicates to the base station thatthe UE has RLF report information by transmitting an RRC connectionestablishment request or an RRC connection establishment completion oran RRC connection re-establishment request or an RRC connectionre-establishment completion or handover completion or RRC connectionre-configuration completion or other RRC messages to the base station.

At operation 703, the eNB2 requests the UE to report the RLF reportinformation. The UE transmits the stored RLF report to the eNB2. The UERLF report contains a cell identity of a cell that serves the UE lastbefore the failure happens. The content of the UE RLF report is not whatis concerned by the present disclosure, and will not be elaboratedherein.

At operation 704, the eNB2 transmits an RLF indication message to theeNB1 that serves the UE last before the failure happens. The UE RLFreport contains the cell identity of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore the failure happens, and the eNB2 transmits the RLF report to thebase station in which the cell where the RLF happens is located, i.e.,eNB1. The RLF indication message contains the UE RLF report informationreceived from the UE.

When there is an X2 interface between the eNB1 and the eNB2, the eNB2may transmit the RLF report to the eNB1 directly. When there is no X2interface, the eNB2 may transmit the RLF report to the eNB1 using an S1interface according to a method provided below.

At operation 705, the eNB1 determines a reason for the failure, thedetermination method is not what is concerned in an embodiment of thepresent disclosure and will not be elaborated herein.

At operation 706, the eNB1 transmits a handover report carrying thereason for the failure, e.g., a too early inter-RAT handover, or ahandover to wrong RAT, to a base station that triggers the handover.

Specifically, in an embodiment of present disclosure, the eNB1 transmitsthe handover report to the MME. The eNB1 may transmit the handoverreport to the MME by an eNB direct information transfer message or otherS1 messages. The S1 message may contain an identity of a source cellthat triggers the last handover, and the reason for the failure (e.g.,too early inter-RAT handover or handover to wrong RAT or cell), and/oran identity of a target cell of the last handover. The S1 message maycontain routing information.

If the base station that triggers the handover is a UTRAN base station,the routing information contains LAI, RAC and RNC identity of the cellthat triggers the handover, and may also contain an expanded RNCidentity of an RNC where the cell that triggers the handover is located(i.e., location information of a source cell). The eNB1 knows the LAI,RAC, RNC identity, and/or expanded RNC identity of the source UTRAN cellaccording to the UE history information received during the handover(e.g., through the flow in FIG. 6), as the most recent cell informationcontained in the UE visit history information is put first in the list.If the base station that triggers the handover is a GERAN base station,the routing information contains the LAI, RAC and CI of the cell thattriggers the handover (i.e., location information of the source cell).The eNB1 knows the LAI, RAC, and CI of the source GERAN cell accordingto the UE history information received during the handover (e.g.,through the flow in FIG. 6), as the most recent cell information in theUE visit history information is put first in the list.

At operation 707, the MME transmits a handover report to the SGSN/MSC.The MME finds the SGSN/MSC according to the routing information in thereceived message. The MME finds the source SGSN/MSC according to thereceived LAI, and/or RAC.

At operation 708, the SGSN/MSC transmits the received handover report tothe RNC/BSS. If the source base station is a UTRAN base station, theSGSN finds a source RNC according to the RNC identity or expanded RNCidentity in the received message. If the source base station is a GERANbase station, the SGSN finds a source BSS according to CI in thereceived message. The RNC/BSS makes statistics of MRO issues accordingto the reason for the failure contained in the received handover reportand identities of a source cell and target cell of the last handoverbefore the failure occurs.

At this point, the description of the overall work flow of the methodfor transmitting a handover report in which a first base stationindicates a failure event to a second base station according to thefourth embodiment of the present disclosure is completed.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a basic flow of a method fortransmitting an RLF report according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The method is applicable for transmitting an RLF report in ascenario where after the UE is handed over to a target system and an RLFor handover failure happens, the UE accesses to the target system again,and there is no X2 interface between a base station accessed to by theUE in the target system after the failure (referred to as second basestation hereafter) and a base station that serves the UE last before thefailure happens. As shown in FIG. 8, the method includes the followingoperations.

Referring to FIG. 8, at operation 801, the second base station receivesthe RLF report transmitted by the UE, the RLF report containing a cellidentity of a cell that serves the UE last before the failure occurs.

In an implementation, the second base station may request mobilityhistory report information from the UE, the mobility history reportinformation containing cell information of cells that have been visitedby the UE. The cell information may include or not contain locationinformation of the cells.

At operation 802, the second base station determines locationinformation of the cell that serves the UE last before the failureoccurs and a base station identity of the first base station accordingto the cell identity of the cell that serves the UE last before thefailure occurs.

The second base station may obtain the base station identity of thefirst base station that serves the UE last before the failure occursaccording to the cell identity of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore the failure occurs.

The second base station may determine the location information of thecell that serves the UE last before the failure occurs according to thecontent in the RLF report directly by the following two methods. Thefirst method is that if the UE RLF report contains a cell identity, ECGIor PCI, and frequency information of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore the failure occurs, the second base station may search for thelocation information of the cell that corresponds to the cell identityof the cell that serves the UE last before the failure occurs in aneighbor relation table. If the cell that serves the UE last before thefailure occurs and the cell of the second base station are not aneighbor relation, the corresponding location information may be unableto be found. The second method is that if the UE RLF report contains acell identity, PCI, and frequency information of the cell that servesthe UE last before the failure happens, an automatic neighbor relations(ANR) procedure may be used to determine the location information of thecell that serves the UE last before the failure occurs.

Further, when the second base station receives the mobility historyreport information transmitted from the UE, the second base station maydetermine the location information of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore the failure occurs, with reference to the mobility history reportinformation and the cell identity of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore the failure occurs.

The first method may be that when the visit history cell information ofthe UE contains ECGI and location information of a history cell that hasbeen visited by the UE, the location information of the cell that servesthe UE last before the failure occurs may be determined according to thecell identity of the cell that serves the UE last before the failureoccurs, and the ECGI and location information of the history cell thathas been visited by the UE.

The second method may be that when the cell identity of the cell thatserves the UE last before the failure occurs is an ECGI, the second basestation may determine the PCI and frequency information of the cell thatserves the UE last before the failure occurs according to acorrespondence relation between the ECGI, PCI and frequency informationof the history cell that has been visited by the UE in the UE visithistory cell information, and use an ANR procedure to determine thelocation information of the cell that serves the UE last before thefailure occurs.

At operation 803, the second base station transmits the RLF report tothe first base station by an S1 message that carries a target nodeidentity to the first base station. The target node identity includesthe location information of the cell that serves the UE last beforefailure occurs and the base station identity of the first base station.

To be specific, the second base station transmits the RLF report to asecond core network node to which the second bases station connects bythe S1 message, and the second core network node determines a first corenetwork node to which the first base station connects according to thelocation information of the cell that serves the UE last before failureoccurs, and transmits the RLF report to the first core network node(this operation is unnecessary when the first core network node and thesecond core network node are a same node), and then the first corenetwork node determines the first base station according to the basestation identity of the first base station, and transmits the RLF reportto the first base station.

The above method for transmitting the RLF report will be illustrated byway of the following two embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting an RLFreport according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.Detailed description of operations that are irrelevant to the presentdisclosure will be omitted herein. In an embodiment of the presentdisclosure, besides of introduction on implementation of the method fortransmitting the RLF report, implementation of handover reporttransmission based on the received RLF report will also be given. Forexample, the embodiment of present disclosure may be implemented in thefollowing scenario. As shown in FIG. 6, shortly after the RNC/BSSsuccessfully hands over the UE to eNB1, an RLF happens to the UE in acell of the eNB1, when the UE accesses to a LTE cell (a cell controlledby eNB2), e.g., accessing to cell 2 or being handed over to the cell 2,the UE transmits stored RLF report information to the base station eNB2where the cell 2 is located. When the UE accesses to the cell 1 and theRLF occurs, the UE may first access to a 3G cell, e.g., cell 3, and thenreturn and access to the LTE cell2 or then be handed over to the LTEcell 2. As shown in FIG. 9, the method includes the followingoperations.

Referring to FIG. 9, at operation 901, the RLF happens to the UE in thecell of the eNB1.

At operation 902, when the UE returns to the LTE cell, for example theUE establishing an RRC connection in the cell 2 controlled by the LTEeNB2 or executing RRC connection re-establishment, or when the UE ishanded over to the LTE cell 2, the UE indicates to the base station thatthe UE has RLF report information by transmitting an RRC connectionestablishment request or an RRC connection establishment completion oran RRC connection re-establishment request or an RRC connectionre-establishment completion or handover completion or RRC connectionre-configuration completion or other RRC messages to the base station.The UE may also indicate to the base station that the UE has mobilityhistory information using the RRC connection re-establishment completionor above other RRC messages.

At operation 903, the eNB2 requests the UE to report the RLF reportinformation. The eNB2 may request the UE to report the mobility historyreport information. The UE transmits the stored RLF report to the eNB2.The UE RLF report contains a cell identity of a cell that serves the UElast before the failure. The content of the UE RLF report is not what isconcerned by the present disclosure, and will not be elaborated herein.The UE transmits the mobility history report to the eNB2. The mobilityhistory report contains a list of cell information of cells that havebeen visited by the UE. The cell information of a cell that has beenvisited by the UE contains an ECGI, PCI, and frequency information ofthe cell, and time UE stayed in the cell. The cell information of thecell that has been visited by the UE also contains location informationof the cell. For an E-UTRAN cell, the location information thereof is aTAI or TAC.

At operation 904, the eNB2 transmits the RLF report to the MME2.

The RLF report contains the cell identity of the cell that serves the UElast before the failure happens, and the eNB2 transmits the RLF reportto the base station where the cell where the RLF occurs is located,i.e., eNB1, according to the cell identity. The eNB2 transmits the RLFreport to the eNB1 by an RLF indication message. The RLF indicationmessage contains the UE RLF report information received from the UE.

If there is no X2 interface between the eNB1 and the eNB2, the RLFreport needs to be transmitted over the S1 interface. The eNB2 maytransmit the RLF report to the eNB1 by an eNB configuration transfermessage and an MME configuration transfer message, or by other S1messages. The eNB2 transmits the eNB configuration transfer message orother S1 messages to the MME2. The S1 messages contain the UE RLFreport. The S1 messages may contain an identity of a target basestation, i.e., an identity of the base station eNB1. The identity of thetarget base station contains a CGI of the target base station and aselected TAI.

The method that the eNB2 determines the CGI of the target base stationand the TAI of the cell that serves the UE last before failure is asfollows.

The UE RLF report contains the cell identity of the cell that serves theUE last before failure, the cell information of the cell that has beenvisited by the UE contains the ECGI of the cell, the TAI or TAC of thecell, and the eNB2 knows the TAI of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore failure according to the cell identity of the cell that servesthe UE last before failure and the ECGI and TAI or TAC of the cellcontained in the cell information of the cell that has been visited bythe UE. The eNB2 knows the global eNB identity of the base station thatserves the UE last before failure according to the cell identity of thecell that serves the UE last before failure.

A core network node MME2 to which the eNB2 connects knows whether theeNB1 and the eNB2 are connected to different MME pools according to theTAI in the target base station identity. If they connects to differentMME pool, then the MME2 finds the core network node to which the eNB1connects, i.e., target MME, such as MME1, according to the TAI. The MME2transmits the UE RLF report to the MME1 at operation 905. At operation906, the MME1 transmits the RLF report to the eNB1 by an MMEconfiguration transfer message or other S1 messages.

At operation 907, the eNB1 determines a reason for the failure, and thedetermination method is not what concerned in an embodiment of thepresent disclosure and will not be elaborated herein.

At operation 908, the eNB1 transmits a handover report which carries thereason for the failure, e.g., a too early inter-RAT handover, or ahandover to wrong RAT, to a base station that triggers the handover. Inan embodiment of the present disclosure, the eNB1 transmits the handoverreport to the MME1. The eNB1 may transmit the handover report to theMME1 by an eNB direct information transfer message or other S1 messages.The S1 message may contain an identity of a source cell that triggersthe handover and the reason for the failure (e.g., the two earlyinter-RAT handover or the handover to wrong RAT), and/or an identity ofa target cell of the last handover. The S1 message may contain routinginformation. Specifically, if the base station that triggers thehandover is a UTRAN base station, the routing information contains LAI,RAC and RNC identity of the cell that triggers the handover, and mayalso contain an expanded RNC identity of an RNC where the cell thattriggers the handover is located (i.e., location information of a sourcecell). The eNB1 knows the LAI, RAC, RNC identity, and/or expanded RNCidentity of the source UTRAN cell according to a method of an embodimentshown in FIG. 3, 4, 5 or 6. If the base station that triggers thehandover is a GERAN base station, the routing information contains theLAI, RAC and CI of the cell that triggers the handover (i.e., locationinformation of the source cell). The eNB1 knows the LAI, RAC, and CI ofthe source GERAN cell according to a method of an embodiment shown inFIG. 3, 4, 5, or 6.

At operation 909, the MME1 transmits the handover report to theSGSN/MSC. The MME1 finds the SGSN/MSC according to the routinginformation in the received message. The MME1 finds the source SGSN/MSCaccording to the received LAI, and/or RAC.

At operation 910, the SGSN/MSC transmits the received handover report tothe RNC/BSS. If the source base station is a UTRAN base station, theSGSN finds a source RNC according to the RNC identity or expanded RNCidentity in the received message. If the source base station is a GERANbase station, the SGSN finds a source BSS according to CI in thereceived message. The RNC/BSS makes statistics of MRO issues accordingto the reason of the failure contained in the received handover reportand identities of a source cell and target cell of the last handoverbefore the failure occurs.

At this point, the description of the overall work flow of the methodfor transmitting an RLF report according to the first embodiment of thepresent disclosure is completed.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for transmitting an RLFreport according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.Detailed description of operations that are irrelevant to the presentdisclosure will be omitted herein. Similar with that in the embodimentshown in FIG. 9, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, besides ofintroduction on implementation of the method for transmitting the RLFreport, implementation of handover report transmission based on thereceived RLF report will also be given. For example, the embodiment ofpresent disclosure may be implemented in the following scenario. Asshown in FIG. 6, shortly after the RNC/BSS successfully hands over theUE to eNB1, an RLF happens to the UE in a cell of the eNB1, when the UEaccesses to a LTE cell (a cell controlled by eNB2), e.g., accessing tocell 2 or being handed over to the cell 2, the UE transmits stored RLFreport information to the base station where the cell 2 is located. Whenthe UE accesses to the cell 1 and the RLF occurs, the UE may firstaccess to a 3G cell, e.g., cell3, and then return and access to the LTEcell2 or then be handed over to the LTE cell 2. As shown in FIG. 10, themethod includes the following operations.

Referring to FIG. 10, operations 1001 and 1002 are similar to operations901 and 902, and will not be elaborated herein.

At operation 1003, the eNB2 requests the UE to report the RLF reportinformation. The eNB2 may request the UE to report the mobility historyreport information. The UE transmits the stored RLF report to the eNB2.The UE RLF report contains a cell identity of a cell that serves the UElast before the failure. The content of the UE RLF report is not what isconcerned by the present disclosure, and will not be elaborated herein.The UE transmits the mobility history report to the eNB2. The mobilityhistory report contains a list of cell information of cells that havebeen visited by the UE. The cell information of a cell that has beenvisited by the UE contains an ECGI, PCI, and frequency information ofthe cell, and time the UE stayed in the cell. However, the cellinformation of the cell that has been visited by the UE does not containlocation information of the cell.

At operation 1004, the eNB2 transmits the RLF report to the MME.

The RLF report contains the cell identity of the cell that serves the UElast before the failure happens, and the eNB2 transmits the RLF reportto the base station where the cell where the RLF occurs is located,i.e., eNB1, according to the cell identity. The eNB2 transmits the RLFreport to the eNB1 by an RLF indication message. The RLF indicationmessage contains the UE RLF report information received from the UE.

If there is no X2 interface between the eNB1 and the eNB2, the RLFreport needs to be transmitted over S1 interface. The eNB2 may transmitthe RLF report to the eNB1 by an eNB configuration transfer message andan MME configuration transfer message, or by other S1 messages. The eNB2transmits the eNB configuration transfer message or other S1 messages tothe MME. The S1 messages contain the UE RLF report. The S1 messages maycontain an identity of a target base station, i.e., an identity of thebase station eNB1. The identity of the target base station contains aCGI of the target base station and a selected TAI.

The UE RLF report contain the cell identity of the cell that serves theUE last before failure, and the eNB2 knows the CGI of the cell thatserves the UE last before failure according to the cell identity of thecell that serves the UE last before failure. The eNB2 may know a TAI ofthe cell that serves the UE last before failure by the following severalmethods.

Method 1, the UE RLF report contains an ECGI or PCI and frequencyinformation of the cell that serves the UE last before failure, andthere is a TAI of a cell corresponding to the ECGI and PCI in a neighborrelation list stored at the eNB2.Method 2, the UE RLF report contains the cell identity PCI, andfrequency information of the cell that serves the UE last beforefailure, and the eNB2 knows the TAI of the cell using an ANR procedure.The ANR procedure needs to use the PCI, and the ANR procedure is thesame as that in related art, and will not be elaborated herein.Method 3, if the cell identity of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore failure in the UE RLF report is an ECGI, the eNB determines thePCI and frequency information of the cell that serves the UE last beforefailure according to the ECGI, PCI, and frequency information containedin the cell information of the cells that have been visited by the UE.The eNB2 know the TAI of the cell that serves the UE last before failureby using an ANR procedure. The ANR procedure may use the PCI, and theANR procedure is the same as that in related art, and will not beelaborated.Method 4, considering that the coverage of an MME pool is relativelarge, and normally the eNB1 and eNB2 in the above scenario are locatedin an MME pool, then the TAI of the cell where the UE establishes theRRC connection or where the UE re-accesses or where the UEre-establishes a connection is used as the TAI of the cell that servesthe UE last before failure and is included into the S1 message.

By one of the above four methods, the TAI of the cell that serves the UElast before failure is determined. The eNB2 transmits the S1 messagethat carries the RLF report to a core network node MME to which the eNB2connects. The S1 message may include a target node identity (i.e.,target base station identity), and the MME knows whether the eNB1 andthe eNB2 are connected with different MME pools according to the TAI inthe target base station identity. And if they connect to different MMEpool, then the MME2 finds the target MME according to the TAI, andtransmits the UE RLF report to the target MME.

The MME or the target MME finds the eNB1 according to the ECGI in thetarget identity, and the MME transmits the RLF report to the eNB1 by anMME configuration transfer message or other S1 messages at operation1005.

Corresponding to the method 4 of the UE obtaining the TAI of the cellthat serves the UE last before failure, if the MME cannot find acorresponding base station according to the ECGI in the target identity,which indicates that the eNB1 and eNB2 belong to different MME pools,then the MME may discard the UE RLF report of this time.

The operations 1006 to 1009 are similar to operations 907 to 910, andwill not be elaborated.

Now, the description of the overall work flow of the method fortransmitting the RLF report in the second embodiment is completed.

The foregoing is the implementation of the method for transmitting anRLF report and a handover report according to the present disclosure.The present application also provides two kinds of bases station deviceswhich can be used to implement the above method for transmitting the RLFreport and the handover report.

FIG. 11 illustrates a first base station device provided according to anembodiment of the present disclosure, which can be used to implement themethod for transmitting the handover report according to the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 11, the base station device includes a locationinformation obtaining unit and a transmitting unit.

The location information obtaining unit is used as a target base stationof a handover to obtain location information of a source cell from asource base station or location information of history cells that havebeen visited by the UE, and transmits a handover report to base stationswhere the history cells that have been visited by the UE or to thesource base station, in which the handover report may include anunnecessary handover report, a too early handover report or a handoverto wrong cell report.

FIG. 12 illustrates a second base station device provided according toan embodiment of the present disclosure, which can be used to implementthe method for transmitting the handover report according to the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12, the base station device includes an RLF reportreceiving unit, a location information determination unit, and an RLFreport transmitting unit.

The RLF report receiving unit is configured to receive an RLF reporttransmitted by the UE.

The location information determination unit is configured to determinelocation information of a cell that serves the UE last before failureand a base station identity of a base station that serves the UE lastbefore failure.

The RLF report transmitting unit is configured to transmit the RLFreport to the base station that serves the UE last before failure by anS1 message that carries a target node identity. The target node identitycontains the location information of the cell that serves the UE lastbefore failure and the base station identity of the base station thatserves the UE last before failure.

The base station devices in FIGS. 11 and 12 may be located in a samephysical entity, e.g., an eNB in a LTE system.

In conclusion, in the method and apparatus for transmitting a handoverreport adopted by the present disclosure, a source base station notifiesa target base station of information of a source cell or information ofa UE history cell (UE history information) containing locationinformation of the history cell. When the target base station needs totransmit a handover report to the source base station, the target basestation routes the handover report to the source base station or a basestation controller via a core network. Further, a method and anapparatus for transmitting an RLF report are disclosed. In thecircumstance that after a handover, an RLF happens to the UE or thehandover fails, when there is no X2 interface between a base stationwhere the UE accesses to the target system again and a base station thatserves the UE last before failure, the present disclosure discloses amethod of obtaining routing information of the base station that servesthe UE last before failure and transmitting the RLF report through theS1 interface. With the methods of the present disclosure, influence onthe user equipment is avoided, configuration of an operator is reduced,thus the MRO issue between different RATs is addressed and the systemperformance is improved.

While the present disclosure has been shown and described with referenceto various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilledin the art that various changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure asdefined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method by a first base station, the methodcomprising: receiving a first message requesting an inter-radio accesstechnology (RAT) handover from a source cell associated with a secondbase station to a target cell associated with the first base station,the first message including a tracking area identity (TAI), an identity(ID) of the second base station, and a cell ID of the source cell;identifying whether the inter-RAT handover is unnecessary; andtransmitting, to the second base station, based on the TAI, the ID ofthe second base station and the cell ID of the source cell, a secondmessage indicating that the inter-RAT handover is unnecessary if theinter-RAT handover is unnecessary, the second message being used toadjust at least one parameter of the second base station.